Mixed Migration Flows in the Mediterranean: August 2018

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Between January and August 2018 a total of 87,776 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe; 34% less than 133,513 reported in the same period last year. Some 17,177 migrants were registered transiting through the Western Balkans.

According to the compilation of available data from national authorities and IOM offices, a total of 87,776 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe between January and August 2018. Estimated 79 per cent of the overall population crossed the Mediterranean Sea (69,614), mainly using the Western Mediterranean route which leads to Spain where 33,912 new arrivals were registered between January and August 2018. The increased migratory movements through Western Balkans (Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina) continued during this reporting period reaching a total of 17,177 at the end of August 2018, fourteen times more than the 1,153 reported in the same period last year and five times increase compared to the 2,675 registered in the whole of 2017. The majority of migrants are registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a total of 12,817. Pakistan is the most commonly reported country declared by a third of overall registered caseload in Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by those who arrived from the Syrian Arab Republic (15%), the Islamic Republic of Iran (14%), Afghanistan (10%), Iraq (9%) and 29 other nationality groups (read more here).